


Breathe, Doctor Smith

by TFALokiwriter



Category: Lost in Space (1998)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Guilt, One Shot, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26951239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TFALokiwriter/pseuds/TFALokiwriter
Summary: Smith isn't alone, in a airlock, with companions.
Relationships: Penny Robinson & Zachary Smith, Will Robinson & Zachary Smith
Kudos: 1





	Breathe, Doctor Smith

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a version to the TOS Lost in Space, while writing the story I was debating whether to set it in TOS or 1998, TOS felt much better since they were discussing the end. This song was the inspiration--> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf_Oj-mrZxw
> 
> 1998 film's sequel was supposed to be about them reaching Alpha Prime, Smith getting cured, and finding Global Sedition. I incorporated the aftermath of these bits into this story.

"Breathe, Doctor Smith," Will instructed. "Slowly."

Smith slowed his breathing with a hoarse voice from the wailing.

"I am scared, William." Smith admitted.

Will looked toward the thick wall of the airlock that lacked a window then up toward the older man.

"It's stupid how we got stuck in here instead of the intended target." Penny complained.

"That individual is smarter than what we have given credit for." Smith said, bitterly.

"At least we're together." Will said, helpfully.

Penny turned her attention upon Will.

"Yeah." Penny said. "We're not those little kids that went into space and got sabotaged."

"Remember when I was just ten?" Will asked.

"Hard to forget, Will." Penny and Smith laughed at once. "Right, Doctor Smith?"

"Nineteen year old and twenty-three year old in the same place for the first time in weeks," Smith folded his arms then shook his head over the events that had taken place prior all to this. Events that had been otherwise quite so frustrating with the weight on his shoulders. They were quiet for the first time in weeks. "I remember a time when it was much easier to get you in the same place years ago for a very important matter."

"What--oh, you did say you wanted to speak to us about something the last few weeks." Will said.

They looked toward Smith, waiting, for him to speak.

"When we left your parents back at Alpha Prime when evading the authorities for my hand in the ship going off course, I didn't forget our dear friend Robot." Smith confessed as the Robinsons grew alarmed and shocked by the words that were coming from the man in his late forties. Smith paused, his head lowering, grimacing over the matter. "He chose to stay behind to give us time to leave."

"The truth is worse than the lie," Will said. "Thought he would tell me to do that sort of thing."

"Robot made it his life mission to do what he hadn't done after leaving the time bubble planet." Penny said.

"He was so very protective." Will said then he laughed.

"Is." Smith corrected. "He is not gone."

"If he delayed them, he would be facing charges of obstruction of justice." Will said. "Do you know what Mission Control does to machines that. . ."

"I do." Smith said. "But recall, my dear sir, that he has a fused neural net that isn't easy to replicate." Will began to smile, fondly, at the memory. "Makes it harder to put a individual such as our friend into factory mode."

"How long ago did we leave Alpha Prime?" Smith asked. "Seems I have forgotten."

"We were there for five years building that hypergate, so it was a year ago." Penny said.

"That was a rushed construction." Will grimaced. "I didn't think Mission Control and General Goddard would be the first ones there."

"We had more technology than what the Jupiter 2 was equipped for mining." Smith noted. "And of course the UGSF would come first in the colony fleet!" Smith propped his head up, rolling his eyes, in exasperation. "Defense always comes first when escorting prized material."

"I miss Blarp, Judy, and Don." Penny said. "Wh-W-W-W-why? did Blarp have to get into trouble?" she started to tremble, quite emotional, as her features became marked by the hallmarks of upset feelings. "Why did they have to go after her?"

Smith lowered his head then turned his attention upon the young woman.

"Because they knew you would have been heartbroken to lose her for good." Smith replied then his voice became soft. "My dear Penelope. . ." he looked upon her, guilty. "No one feels as much as guilt for losing them than I do."

"I should have left her behind." Penny was looking up toward the ceiling.

"And I should have left you all behind." Smith said. "And allowed myself to be properly taken to custody."

"Doctor Smith, you wouldn't have lived for more than a month being alone." Will reminded, sharply.

"You would HAVE A FUTURE!" Smith shot back. 

"What kind of future has you gone?" Will asked.

"That would have hung on all our heads." Penny agreed. "And being on Alpha Prime wouldn't felt all as good as it did before."

It was silent between them as Smith squeezed his eyes rubbing his forehead. Smith regulated his breathing while fighting back tears at the silent death that awaited the children as their oxygen slowly ran out with each word that was spoken. Smith opened his eyes facing the young adults. 

"I thought I didn't take that future once that future Alpha Prime problem with Global Sedition was averted." Will frowned as the older man continued to talk. "Turns out I _did_ take your future away."

Will and Penny stared at Smith.

"Even if I were gone, my dear companions. . ." Smith felt a lump at his throat at the grim idea. "You would have been among civilization and be able to make new better friends." Smith shrugged, disappointed. "Obviously, I failed to clean up my affairs properly before leaving Alpha Prime A."

"You didn't take our future away!" Will shouted, abruptly. "You gave us a new one and a new chance for dad to be there."

"He was there for us; this time." Penny said.

"Dad praised me for my inventions and my accomplishments." Will shed a small but fond smile looking back. "It still feels weird after all those years that he was deeply involved in the project away from home and he was hardly there."

"It is sad, however," Penny continued the topic. "that all it took was _you_ to make dad look at us and pay attention to what we were doing."

Smith sighed, lowering his head, bitter then proceeded to laugh for a shot moment.

"Funny thing. . ." Smith proceeded to say as their attention was glued upon him. "The moment where we need something to eat metal, the most important thing at this moment, and I can't do that anymore."

"This is better than going mad and thinking you're God." Will said.

"Very much better." Penny said.

"Remember how you were in the lower decks as you were mutating?" Will asked.

"Painfully." Smith said. "Some of the other bits are hard to recall."

"We had to put you down there at the end of the third year and during time that we were at the alternate Alpha Prime A. All that sabotaging and hacking we did as a team did lot of good helping us get away from Global Sedition." Penny resumed from where Will had stopped. "This is a improvement. "

"It is." Smith relented.

"You, dying, as . . ." Will let that hang for a moment then gestured his hands toward Smith. "As you."

"Instead of as some alternate spider mutant." Penny shuddered. "So much nightmare fuel."

Smith grimaced at the recollection that flashed his mind.

"Yes, woe was me. Woe was me." Smith said, woefully, shaking his head. "My delicate back still hasn't recovered from that horrid cure! At the brink of death, my back aches as though it is cold and raining outside when it is in fact not!" Smith's hands rolled into fists as he looked up toward the wall, in self-pity, at his dismal end. "Oh, the paaaain. The paaaain."

The young adults giggled, their bodies trembling with laughter, kicking their legs at the wall as they recalled the extensive de-mutating hours. Penny smacked the floor howling with laughter as Will was on his side as his ribs ached with laughter. Smith scowled at the children laughing at his despair.

"Your parents fashioned the lower decks into a holding cell!" Smith abruptly announced.

The children stopped laughing.

"No, you did that!" Penny exclaimed.

"Did not!" Smith argued.

"Well, _someone_ did!" Will piped up.

"Guess we shall never know." Smith said.

It was quiet as they laid in the airlock. Of it all took to knock down the Robinsons, all it took was him just as much as it took to bring them together. He was sent by Global Sedition to kill them all and finally, after years, after several years, without even intending to do so; he was successful. No one was at the conn, no one was there to open the door, no one was there to hear them and open the door and let in precious oxygen to save them. Smith couldn't return and neither could the children without being prosecuted.

Smith could never get a break and neither could they. The universe happened to hate them all. Was it because the Robinsons enabled him to be the way that he was? Smith watched as Penny fell asleep, then Will was next, and he was all alone. It wasn't fair. He should be the one facing the jaws of Death, be mangled, not them. Never them. Precious flowers with a heavenly and kind aura had closed before his eyes. His vision darkened and he fell asleep.

Inks of tragedy decorated the frame of the Jupiter, decorated the family of the Robinsons, and Smith was the key to seeing that all happen and he had. The Jupiter 2 was designed, inked, and built by the hands of tragedy itself. And the executor of the tragedy being seen through was Smith himself. He would have seen the tragedy in any retrospects that happened to roll on by. Smith was comfortably resting in the dark, immune, unaware, of the outside forces when--

_Air._

Smith took a long, loud, breath taking in the oxygen.

"Breathe, Doctor Smith." Was Will's instruction as a oxygen mask was planted on Smith as sounds of relief were being made by Penny looming over him. Will appeared to be wounded and Penny was crying, openly, upon him. "Slowly."

Smith breathed.


End file.
